The Pentagon announced that the United States didn’t change the status of its nuclear forces after Russia announced the suspension of the Treaty on the Reduction of Strategic Offensive Arms (START 3).
“There hasn’t been any change in terms of readiness, in terms of the commitments that we have to implement,” said the Pentagon’s deputy spokesperson, Sabrina Singh, during a news conference on Wednesday.
Singh described Russia’s decision as irresponsible, adding that nuclear-armed countries should cooperate with each other.
The Pentagon’s deputy spokesperson confirmed: “We maintain communication channels, and as you have seen, the White House contacted Russia to inform it of US President Joe Biden’s visit to Kiev, and therefore we didn’t close communication channels and we welcome communication with Russia”.
She indicated that despite the channels of communication remaining open, Washington wouldn’t discuss the conflict in Ukraine with Russia without the participation of Ukraine itself.
In turn, US State Department spokesman Ned Price expressed the United States’ hope that Russia would change its decision regarding the suspension of the START 3 treaty.
“This won’t only be in the interest of Russia, but also in the interest of countries around the world,” he said.
On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s suspension of the Treaty on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Moscow didn’t withdraw from the treaty, and will continue to abide by the restrictions on the number of missiles contained therein until the expiry of the treaty’s validity date, and that it may back down from its decision if the United States takes positive steps in this regard.
